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S M Rasaily in Bhopal
Four Madhya Pradesh police officials have been suspended for criminally conspiring to issue clearance certificates facilitating the delivery of passports, believed to have been used by notorious underworld don Abu Salem, his girlfriend and one time bollywood actress Monika Bedi and another woman, identified as Fauzia.
Danish Beg (Abu Salem), Rubina (Monika Bedi) and Fauzia got passports issued from Bhopal, and traveled to the United Arab Emirates.
Salem had shaved his familiar beard and worn a pair of spectacles for his photograph as Danish Beg. Monika looks very small town in her passport-sized photograph, nothing like the sexy siren she portrayed in few B grade movies that she appeared in. She and Rubina are listed as Beg's two wives.
Senior police officials were baffled over how even after police verification, the passports were issued.
What is even more baffling is how the three even managed a ration card from the municipal corporation, which was used to establish proof of residence during the verification process.
"The passport office had asked for police verification in May and the special police branch and the local Parvalia police appears to have verified the presence of named persons in the area in June," said AP Singh, SP Bhopal.
He has now suspended the three junior officers and a departmental inquiry has been ordered against Dinesh Bais, who was the station in-charge of Parvalia, when the passports were issued.
The police are also on the lookout for a youth who had introduced himself as the brother-in-law of Salem, and had perhaps been the conduit in paying bribes.
The whole shoddy affair has taken the lid off how easy it is to get a passport in Bhopal.
In 1998 Salim Haddi, and in 1994 Memon brothers and Piloo Khana had also got their passports from Bhopal.
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